| April 3, 2000 | 03 00050 61 00040301 |
Mr. Jack Park
jackpark@verticalnet.com
Street address
Palo Alto, CA Zip
| Subject: | Advancing KM Toward Intelligence |
|
Judicious Review Avoids Being Overwhelmed |
Dear Jack,
Responding to your letter today on the issue of having a ."...lot of work" to read the record from my letter last Friday, first take a look at the concept of judicial review developed last year to address this question.
I tried to point out during the Colloquium that getting a lot of links might not be the grand solution everyone expects.
For the creator of links it is extremely helpful to deepen and broaden understanding, nominally impossible to do both, but both possible and practical with SDS. Readers on the other hand are exposed to the subconscious web of connections that go on forever, because ultimately, everything is connected to everything. That is another of those "dilemmas" cited by KM experts, who often have not actually worked with a knowledge environment, as you have with TSC.
It seems to turn out that when people are working on a specific task, like fixing a car, doing a knee operation, or creating some computer code, following links is a fast, easy way to get information on causal relationships for doing specific tasks; PLUS people have a good sense about when to stop following links by recognizing they have enough to proceed with the work. Usually it is only a click or two and people feel good they have what is needed to move forward. This is "good intelligence."
However, when merely considering ideas, as we are doing in our discussion, this tends to be more overwhelming, because ideas have a lineage that goes, again, forever. It seems like "bad intelligence." So this second type of application for the SDS record needs focused attention to procedure that avoids avoiding getting off the beaten path too far. This happens because, as you know, while point
a, is fully related to point b, and point b is mostly related to point c, and point c is somewhat related to point d, etc., but upon arriving at point "z," it can often seem not the least related to point a, so people feel lost, if they follow links too deeply. Just reading about the problem makes people dizzy. This is another one of those dilemmas: the complexity of human knowledge. We can track complexity with SDS, and this is extremely helpful, but it can seem overwhelming.I think an area where Doug's team and others can advance the ball on POIMS through the DKR is working out ways and means to support confidentiality. I mentioned this in our telecon on Friday, as managing the tension constructively that arises from the dichotomy between people as individuals, and the need to support and draw support from community through communication. How do we get the benefit of efficiencies from webmail without causing alarm about confidentiality? When time permits, maybe we can discuss this angle. I know it is important, and apologize if I moved too far too quickly. Thanks for your continuing interest.
I hope ultimately, people can see the advantages of cost and quality that webmail offers for command and control of the record, relative to conventional email (as with this letter to you sent as conventional email), far exceeds everyone's very legitimate concerns about confidentiality.
Sincerely,
THE WELCH COMPANY
Rod Welch
rowelch@attglobal.net